Eugene–Springfield fire officials present first metro-area CWPP; council presses on funding, enforcement and high-risk neighborhoods

Eugene–Springfield Fire staff on June 10 presented the draft Eugene–Springfield Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), describing a data-driven risk assessment, six priority goals and a set of high-priority action items intended to guide mitigation and resilience work across Eugene and Springfield.

Hannah Schaeffer, wildfire preparedness manager, told the council the plan is an informational, nonregulatory annex to Lane County’s CWPP and that an Oregon State Fire Marshal Community Wildfire Risk Reduction grant provided $150,000 to hire a consultant to develop the plan. “This plan is nonregulatory. It does not mandate anything,” Schaeffer said, stressing the document is a planning tool to help prioritize fuel reduction, evacuation planning and community outreach.

Schaeffer summarized community engagement results: a December–January public survey generated about 85 responses and more than 60% of respondents in Eugene said they felt unprepared for a wildfire. She identified the South Hills, Southwest Hills and Laurel Hill Valley as high-priority areas in Eugene and recommended targeted mitigation such as shaded fuel breaks along ridge lines, selective thinning, structure hardening, vegetation management outreach and evaluation of street connectivity for evacuation.

The plan’s action items include more detailed critical-infrastructure assessments, expanded outreach (including Spanish-language materials), implementation of fuels-reduction projects in high-risk zones, updated evacuation-route maps and predesignation/equipping of temporary evacuation centers with backup power. Schaeffer said Eugene Springfield Fire will lead plan maintenance and that the CWPP is designed as a five-year plan with periodic updates; the staff also proposed implementing a standardized process by the end of 2027 to provide defensible-space and home-hardening guidance to residential permit applicants.

Councilors focused questions on enforcement versus voluntary approaches, funding and equity. Schaeffer said Eugene currently has no code that requires residents to maintain a specified level of defensible space and that outside of certain vegetation-complaint enforcement situations the city’s approach is educational: “Eugene does not have any code currently that requires anybody to maintain a certain level of defensible space around their home and property… So it’s all educational,” she said. Funding sources named in the session included the Community Safety Payroll Tax (CSPT) for some staff positions and programs, repeated grants from the Oregon State Fire Marshal, and potential federal Community Wildfire Defense grants as they become available; staff also described a CSPT-funded chipper purchased to help neighborhoods dispose of woody debris and noted multiple recent partnerships with Northwest Youth Corps to do fuels work.

Councilors raised concerns about flatland neighborhoods (West/Bethel), renter access to assistance (assessments generally require the homeowner’s permission), insurance-company reactions to hazard maps, and local park issues such as youth-started fires at Wild Irish Ridge. Travis Worthington, deputy chief for community risk reduction, explained operational coordination on gates and egress at Hendricks Park, saying gates remain open by default but parks staff can close them when needed and emergency responders have keys; he also said evacuation maps are being updated in a county/state system (referred to in the transcript as Genesys) to enable phased evacuations.

Staff noted the public comment period for the draft plan and invited additional council and neighborhood feedback; no formal city action was taken at the work session.